Wendy Kiefer-O'Brien, Pastor
The 21st century has brought many changes to the First Baptist Church of Sharon, which is located about halfway between Boston, MA and Providence, RI. The town of Sharon has about 17,000 people, with perhaps 70% of its population being Jewish. The Islamic center of New England is located in Sharon and there is a growing Hindu population. There are 16 houses of worship in Sharon. FBC has a membership of less than 100.
When I was called as pastor in January of 1994, the active membership of about 30-40 was predominately white - many with roots in Nova Scotia - with a few African American families in attendance. By 1999, there were several more African American individuals and families that began to attend and one Chinese Family.
The Chinese family that began to attend first came to worship in late 1998. The mother Dorothy Zhang, and her two young children, came to one of our outreach fundraisers - a chocolate fair. The children wanted to attend a church in their town - at the time the family was attending Christian Chinese fellowship in Boston - also an ABC affiliated church. The father, Tom Hu, was a deacon at the church in Brookline, and did not attend FBC at first. In 1999, Dorothy was asked to join the Christian Education committee and she accepted. In the fall of that year, I asked each committee member what his or her vision was for the committee and for the church. That night, we commissioned Dorothy as our "Chinese missionary," as she was involved with other Chinese in the community, often organizing social events.
Also in the fall of 1999, the church entered the Rekindle process of spiritual renewal. As soon as the leadership of the church made a commitment to intentionally be renewed as individuals and as a congregation, growth began to happen both in worship attendance and in the number of visitors that came each Sunday. The visitors began to be more racial and culturally diverse as well, which I attribute to the moving of the Holy Spirit.
Dorothy Zhang suggested that the church extend an invitation to the Chinese community to host its New Year celebration at our church. In February of 2000, the church hosted its first Chinese New Year celebration, and over 225 people came, with about 200 being Chinese! The church couldn't believe it. Where did all of the Chinese people come from? Were they our neighbors and we just didn't know it? Yes! About 70% of the Chinese that came were living in Sharon.
Within a month after the Chinese New Year, a leader of a Chinese Bible Study in Norwood asked if the church would consider allowing a group to meet in the church, as they were getting too big for the house they met in. Ever since 2000, we have had a Friday night Chinese Bible study and fellowship called the Greenland Fellowship. They are officially part of our ministry now even though some of the people who attend the Friday night fellowship are members of other churches - some as far away as Lexington or Providence. Currently, two members of our church Yanzhi Zhang and David Zhang - are the coordinators of the Greenland Fellowship. I am usually invited 2 or 3 times a year to come and give a teaching to the group. On any given Sunday, our worshipping may be 20-30% Chinese.
As we grew in our diversity, we also had to learn to grow in our working together as the Body of Christ. Most of the Chinese members became Christians after living in the United States, and therefore do not have the strong ties to "tradition," Therefore, the church body cannot assume everyone understands why we do something, which has helped us to better articulate what we believe and how that shaped what we do as a community. We have also had to intentionally learn how to invite others to be part of conversation and decision-making.
We continue to grow in our diversity. On Easter Sunday, I was in awe of the beautiful colors of our congregation. - Approximately 1/3 white, 1/3 black (African-American, Haitian and Jamaican), and 1/3 Chinese. We have people whose native languages are Russian, Chinese, French, German, and English. During my sabbatical, the interim minister speaks Spanish as her first language. One of the comments I often hear from first time visitors is how much they enjoy the diversity of our church.
Was there resistance to this growing diversity? On many levels there were. Some of the "older" people were uncomfortable with the changes and even withdrew somewhat. A few even voiced the fear the "they" might become larger in number than we and the church might become a "Chinese church." But most were excited and open to what the Holy Spirit had in store for the church. We have been trying new ways to administrate the church as well as new ways to worship together - sometimes it works and sometimes we fumble, but together we are learning to experience the joy of God's creative creation.